This invention relates to gas and electric kitchen ranges having an improved construction which reduces the temperature of the range side panels, and particularly the temperature of localized hot spots in the side panels.
Gas and electric kitchen ranges have to comply with a number of different safety codes established by Underwriters Laboratory. One of these is UL 858 which establishes a maximum side panel temperature for the range. Since kitchen ranges are usually built-in with cabinets or other appliances closely adjacent to and often in contact with the side panels, if the side panel gets too hot there is a danger of fire. During a self cleaning cycle, the temperatures within the oven of the range can become quite high and can approach 900.degree. F. This is the operating mode of the range which is most critical in terms of side panel temperature, and the range must be designed so that the side panel temperature does not exceed the allowable maximum during self-cleaning. Normally, this is accomplished by designing the range such that the oven cavity is spaced from the side panels, typically by three to four inches, and covered with a blanket of insulation, typically two to two and a half inches thick, so as to leave an air space between the side panels and the insulation. During a self-cleaning cycle, the surface temperature of the insulation close to the front panel flange of the oven may be as high as 400.degree. F., and the air space helps to reduce heat transferred into the side panels due to convection. Heat is also transferred into the side panels by conduction through the metal frame and front panel of the oven and by radiation from the oven door.
Although this conventional range design is capable of maintaining side panel temperatures within acceptable limits during self-cleaning, it has several disadvantages. It is common, for example, to find localized high temperature regions, or hot spots, in the side panels, where the temperature may exceed the temperature of other regions of the side panels by as much as 40.degree. F. Typically, these hot spots are located in the upper regions of the side panels adjacent to the front of the range. Also, the necessity of spacing the oven cavity from the side panels sufficiently to maintain the side panel temperature below an acceptable maximum temperature limits the size of the oven cavity which can be used in a standard 30 inch side range.
It is desirable to provide a method of reducing side panel temperature in a kitchen range, particularly in a localized region in a side panel, and a range having a construction which accomplishes this, and it is to these ends that the present invention is directed.